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Hi moms this is Carrie from
http://www.naturalbabyworld.com. For the next several weeks I’m going
to be sharing some top breastfeeding tips that work from moms just like you
and I call this series The Happy Breast feeder. The reason I call it that
is because breast feeding is supposed to be enjoyable.
It’s not just about the best
health choice for mom and baby but it’s actually a very empowering choice
and it can be fun. So I’d like to approach it from that and not just
talking about all the serious things and statistics about how breast feeding
can protect your baby’s health and even your health but I’m going to focus
on having fun.
The World Health Organization
encourages moms to breast feed for two years and The American Pediatrics
encourages moms to breast feed for at least a year and longer if mom and
baby are enjoying that relationship. Sadly the percentage of moms who are
breast feeding at one year is quite low in the United States and studies
have shown that most of the moms who wean before one year actually wanted to
breast feed for longer but they ran into certain difficulties and to me
that’s sad.
I think if you go into something
with a goal and you don’t meet your goal it can be a little bit depressing
because you can’t go back and change things. With the right information and
the right support. If a mom can reach her goal of breast feeding for a year
or whatever her goal is it can be a time that she can look back on when her
kids are older with a lot of fond memories.
So tip # 1 and this can not be
under estimated – build a support network! You know studies have shown that
your mother, your mother-in-law and your husband have a whole lot to do with
how your breastfeeding relationship works out and whether you are able to
have success and that’s not surprising when you think about it.
My suggestion is that during your
pregnancy start thinking about how you can build a support network and it
starts of course with your husband, your partner. He is the most important
aspect of that. Don’t hit him over the head with a lot of information about
breast feeding. What you can do is kind of take a subtle tact – for
instance you might want to leave magazines or books that talk about the
advantages of breastfeeding in the bathroom.
If you want to get a guy to read
something, leave it in the bathroom and he will pick it up even if just out
of desperation. It will sink in hopefully, the message. One thing that
impresses men a lot is when you talk about the IQ advantage of
breastfeeding. Studies have shown that breastfed children are on average 8
IQ points higher than their formula fed counterparts.
So talk to him about that, talk
to him about how it is going to save money – talk about his wallet, babies
not going to be sick as often so you won’t be running to the doctors as
often, it’s going to save you money on formula. By the time your baby is
six months old you will have saved enough money to buy a new appliance so if
the refrigerator is looking old or whatever reminds him that you can replace
it if you nurse for six months.
During your pregnancy attend some
type of ongoing breastfeeding support classes or laleche meetings and let me
just say this – before I had kids I had always heard about the laleche
league, my own mom had a very empowering experience with laleche league and
she always spoke of the group fondly but I had this preconceived notion in
my head, I just knew that I was going to walk into a laleche meeting and
find a bunch of hair legged women breastfeeding eight year olds (no offense
to those who don’t shave their legs I mean that’s cool if you don’t want to
shave your legs).
The point is that I had a stereo
type in my head. The first time I went to laleche meeting I was wrong!
There was a hairy legged mom but she was not nursing an eight year old so
there are all kinds of women there. There are professional women there that
work outside the home, there were younger women, there were younger women,
there were women with twins, there were women with babies, all kinds of moms
from all types of backgrounds. It was a very nice experience. You can find
out where there is a local laleche meeting at
http://www.lalecheleague.org.
Ask your doctor or midwife for
suggestions for breastfeeding classes but just one little tip here, one
caution, everyone who teaches a breastfeeding class is not necessarily
properly qualified. There are some hospitals or doctor’s groups who may
have breastfeeding classes and the person who is facilitating the class has
had nothing more than an hour or two of breastfeeding basics education. I
wouldn’t recommend that. You might find that you get some information that
is outdated or just plain wrong.
Laleche league leaders on the
other hand have been trained in the normal course of breastfeeding, they
have been accredited by the International Organization and laleche league is
considered the world’s foremost authority on breastfeeding. Laleche leaders
have been breastfeeding mothers themselves. To me it’s kind of strange to
go see a lactation consultant who has never had a baby or never breastfed a
baby so keep that in mind.
Look around at your moms group,
if you go to mops or another moms group through church or your community
maybe. If you go to a homeschooling support group or even just straight
down at the library, look around and talk with other nursing moms and do
this even before you have your baby. There is nothing more powerful than
going into the hospital to have your baby and having the phone number of a
couple of breastfeeding moms who have been there and done that and if you
run into difficulties, just call them up.
Laleche league leaders actually
make house calls and that is absolutely free so if your insurance isn’t
great and you are going to have to come up with a lot of money out of your
pocket to see a lactation consultant, call a laleche league consultant. In
our society it’s kind of rare to see women openly nursing babies and that’s
one of the reasons that new moms have challenges.
If you go to breastfeeding
classes or you have other nursing mom friends, seeing them nursing their
baby’s discreetly in public and be completely comfortable with that can
really help you to learn how. When you are in the hospital when you give
birth to your baby, if you give birth in the hospital, be very careful about
what advice you take from the labor and delivery nurse’s.
Keep in mind that they are not
always educated about proper breastfeeding management. I know when I had my
first child, one of the nurses told me that I should not breastfeed for more
than five minutes at a time or I would get sore. If I had listened to that
advice it is unlikely that I would have been able to have milk supply that
was adequate for my son. That is very inaccurate information!
You should nurse your babies as
often as they indicate they want to nurse in order to bring in a good hearty
milk supply. Those are my tips for today. The next thing we are going to
talk about is how to get your mom or your mother-in-law on your side. I
will see you later and if you want to learn more about breastfeeding and how
to be a sexy lactating diva go to
http://www.sexynursingbra.com.
Listen to The Happy Breastfeeder Part Two
